Guatemala - Board of directors of the Guatemalan social security institute issues new regulations for registration in the social security system

Governmental Agreement 9-2023 was published in the Official Gazette on January 16^th, 2023, through which the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare approves Agreement 1529 of the Board of Directors of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute, which contains new Regulations for Registration in the Social Security System. This Governmental Agreement has entered into force as of January 17^th, 2023.

The purpose of the new Regulations is to establish the rules and requirements for the registration of employers and workers in the Social Security System, for which the Department of Employer and Workers' Registration of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute will be responsible. Additionally, it established certain principles by which the Institute must be governed, such as confidentiality and ex officio impulse.

The new Regulations also highlight the obligations that employers have in the Social Security System, such as their own registration, registration for their workers and compliance on the corresponding payments for the employer and workers' contributions, contemplating that, at the time of its effect, a registration number will be assigned, which will identify the employer in the Unique Social Security Registry.

As for workers, the Regulations provide that, upon registration, all workers must have a Unique Social Security Registry Number, which will correspond to the Unique Identification Code (CUI for Spanish acronym), assigned at the time of registration in the National Registry of Persons of the Republic of Guatemala.

The Regulations encourage the use of information technologies to carry out the procedures regulated therein, establishing that the Guatemalan Social Security Institute must facilitate for these to be carried out by electronic means.

Finally, the Regulations lay down new fines equivalent to Q.500.00 or US$64.00 for employers who fail to comply with certain obligations in the Social Security field.

The new Regulations repeal Agreement 1123 of the Board of Directors of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute and all those rules and regulations that oppose what is established in it.